Peris Wanjeri Mundia
NAME: Peris Wanjeri Mundia
PROJECT: Kiawara Women and Children in Stress Project
DATE: April 2014
My name is Peris Wanjeri Mundia. I am 46 years old, married and a mother of two sons. I am also the guardian to my late brother three children. I live in Kiawara with my family. Before the start of NCCK micro-credit in 2005 I used to run a retail shop in the neighbourhood which gave very poor returns. My husband was a casual labourer and often went without a pay as it was very hard finding a job. Though we lived in our own house, we did have proper sanitation and electricity. At that time the money we earned was barely enough to cater for our daily needs and because the government offered free primary school education, my children went to school. My major worry was the fact that my children would not proceed to secondary school because it was very evident that our meager income could not cater for their school fees since the government did not offer free secondary school education.
My prayers were answered when NCCK microfinance project intervened. My first small loan was kshs.5,000/- and eventually I progressed to 5th phase of kshs.40,000/- that enabled me to start a small workshop and from the profits, my husband bought a welding machine. I opened a food kiosk and the returns from the businesses have improved our quality of life because now we have access to electricity and piped water. The free primary education and partial secondary education have boosted our children’s education.
I am also grateful to NCCK because they gave a partial sponsorship to one of my sons when he was in secondary school. My first born son is now working with Heineken as a marketing agent and he is also pursuing a degree in marketing at The Kenya Methodist University. The other son has just attained a diploma in Purchasing and Supplies from Nyeri Technical Institute and is now job hunting.
The main challenge we experience in our business ventures is the unpredictable market trends and the ever increasing cost of living. We have plans to offer our children higher education and to expand the businesses and would therefore appreciate it if the Council would increase the amount of loan to kshs.80,000/-. We are nonetheless very appreciative of NCCK for having raised our standards of living through the project.
